The present invention relates to control method and apparatus for operating more than two industrial robots synchronously.
Heretofore, line tracking control has been widely known as the method of operating the industrial robots synchronously. For example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication Nos. 60-144806 and 60-175112 disclose robot operating methods based on this control. However, although these methods are both available to make one robot synchronize with a work which is moved by making use of a conveyor, a turntable or the like, they cannot be employed to make a plurality of robots synchronize with each other.
The method of operating a plurality of robots synchronously is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,262, for example. The invention disclosed in this publication has been assigned to the same assignee as the invention of the present application, in which invention a common clock is provided so as to move the robots in accordance with this clock at all times to thereby make the plurality of robots synchronize with each other.